There has been an increased demand in recent years for printing apparatuses, used in conjunction with portable terminals, numerous kinds of measuring instruments, etc., that are equipped with a paper cutter capable of automatically cutting recording paper after printing, in addition to a demand for a reduction in their sizes, and weights, as well as in the thicknesses.
A printing apparatus equipped with a paper cutter of the kind as shown in FIGS. 18A, 18B and 18C is generally known. That is, FIG. 18A is a typical side view depicting an outline of a printing apparatus equipped with a paper cutter of the prior art, FIG. 18B is a plan view depicting an outline of a cutter unit, and FIG. 18C is a plan view depicting an outline of a printer unit.
In the drawings, a printer unit I is a portion that prints on a recording paper 2, and it comprises a platen roller 3 for feeding paper, a printer motor 5 for driving the platen roller 3 via a series of gears 4 and a printer head 6 for printing on the recording paper 2. A cutter unit 7 is a portion that cuts the recording paper 2 after printing, and it comprises a stationary blade 8, a movable blade 9 and a cutter motor 11 for moving the movable blade 9 toward the stationary blade 8 via a gear 10.
With the above structure, the recording paper 2 is transferred by the platen roller 3, guided to an exit port (not shown in the drawing) after being printed on by the printer head 6, and the recording paper 2 is cut by snipping the recording paper 2 with the stationary blade 8 and the movable blade 9.
However, since in a majority of the printing apparatuses known in the past, the recording papers have been cut by hand after printing, whether the cutter unit 7 is attached or not has depended on the request of the user in most cases. For this reason, the cutter unit 7 has merely been a device that is selected according to a width of the papers and is placed upon the printer unit 1, if one is to be attached.
Therefore, there is a limitation in reducing the size, weight and thickness of the printing apparatus equipped with a paper cutter. With regard to the reduction of thickness in particular, it is impossible to make it equal to or below the thickness of the printer motor 5 and the cutter motor 11.